Thursday, June 21, 2007

If The Stephen Colbert Report hadn't already surpassed The Jon Stewart Show in every respect, it did so on Monday, June 18, 2007. I enjoyed this program so much that I was looking for a way to share my thoughts with the RC readership. But how would it possibly tie into a Rock Club post? Thankfully, this show was so good, it offered up an interview with Toby Keith complete with a live musical performance. Prior to the interview with TB, Colbert did a bit about Bob Barker's retirement from the Price is Right, where he suggested that Barker take over as President of the World Bank. He also did a bit about Matthew McConaughey (MM). See below for Colbert's commentary on the "Mantasy."

That photo of MM with his eyes half-open is priceless.

But the interview with Toby Keith led me to do some research, and I was fascinated to learn the following thanks to Wikipedia (so you know it's true):

Toby Keith Covel was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, July 8, 1961

in 1979, TK went to work as a derrick hand in the booming oil fields of Oklahoma

In 1982, the oil industry in Oklahoma began a rapid decline and Keith soon found himself unemployed. He fell back on his football training and played defensive end with the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers while continuing to perform with his band. (The Drillers were an unofficial farm club of the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws)

In 1993, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee. He distributed copies of a demo tape the band had made to the many record companies in the city. There was no interest by any of the record labels and Keith returned home feeling depressed.

Fortunately for Keith, a flight attendant and fan of his gave a copy of Keith's demo tape to Harold Shedd, a Mercury Records executive, while he was traveling on a flight she was working.

Shedd enjoyed what he heard, went to see Keith perform live and then signed him to a recording contract with Mercury.

Keith made an appearance at the very first Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (then NWA-TNA) weekly pay-per-view on June 19, 2002, where his playing of Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue was interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. He would later enter the Gauntlet for the Gold main event specifically to eliminate Jarrett from the match. He would appear the next week, on June 26, and help Scott Hall defeat Jarrett in singles action.

Keith is currently writing a script for a movie based on his and Willie Nelson's 2003 hit Beer for My Horses.

There is more fascinating factoids about Toby Keith that I encourage you to check out on Wikipedia. Here is Stephen Colbert's review of Toby Keith's "High Maintenance Woman" single (which sucks balls) that TK performed on the show.